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Rhodolith distribution, morphology, and cryptofauna have been minimally studied on fringing reefs. We present the first study to examine both rhodolith distribution and associated cryptofauna in a tropical fringing reef, located along the microtidal, wave-dominated north shore of Moorea, French Polynesia. We find higher abundances of larger, rounder, and more branching rhodoliths in locations where longer waves impact the fringing reef. Among 1879 animals extracted and identified from 145 rhodoliths, ophiuroids, polychaetes, decapod crustaceans, and gastropods are most abundant, with a wide range of additional taxa contributing to diversity. Large and branching rhodoliths contain the greatest number and diversity of cryptofaunal organisms and are the preferred habitat of rigid-bodied, non-burrowing forms. Overall, exposure to waves entering the lagoon through passes appears to be a critical determinant of rhodolith abundance, morphotype, and in turn cryptofaunal composition in fringing reef habitats.

 

Scleractinian corals typically form a robust calcium carbonate skeleton beneath their living tissue. This skeleton, through its trace element composition and isotope ratios, may record environmental conditions of water surrounding the coral animal. While bulk unrecrystallized aragonite coral skeletons can be used to reconstruct past ocean conditions, corals that have undergone significant diagenesis have altered geochemical signatures and are typically assumed to retain insufficient meaningful information for bulk or macrostructural analysis. However, partially recrystallized skeletons may retain organic molecular components of the skeletal organic matrix (SOM), which is secreted by the animal and directs aspects of the biomineralization process. Some SOM proteins can be retained in fossil corals and can potentially provide past oceanographic, ecological, and indirect genetic information. Here, we describe a dataset of scleractinian coral skeletons, aged from modern to Cretaceous plus a Carboniferous rugosan, characterized for their crystallography, trace element composition, and amino acid compositions. We show that some specimens that are partially recrystallized to calcite yield potentially useful biochemical information whereas complete recrystalization or silicification leads to significant alteration or loss of the SOM fraction. Our analysis is informative to biochemical-paleoceanographers as it suggests that previously discounted partially recrystallized coral skeletons may indeed still be useful at the microstructural level. 

Abstract Here we report the first recovery, sequencing, and identification of fossil biomineral proteins from a Pleistocene fossil invertebrate, the stony coral Orbicella annularis . This fossil retains total hydrolysable amino acids of a roughly similar composition to extracts from modern O. annularis skeletons, with the amino acid data rich in Asx (Asp + Asn) and Glx (Glu + Gln) typical of invertebrate skeletal proteins. It also retains several proteins, including a highly acidic protein, also known from modern coral skeletal proteomes that we sequenced by LC–MS/MS over multiple trials in the best-preserved fossil coral specimen. A combination of degradation or amino acid racemization inhibition of trypsin digestion appears to limit greater recovery. Nevertheless, our workflow determines optimal samples for effective sequencing of fossil coral proteins, allowing comparison of modern and fossil invertebrate protein sequences, and will likely lead to further improvements of the methods. Sequencing of endogenous organic molecules in fossil invertebrate biominerals provides an ancient record of composition, potentially clarifying evolutionary changes and biotic responses to paleoenvironments.